ASU’s Norvell: There’s a great buzz about ASU

Arizona State football deputy head coach Mike Norvell is pleased with the team’s 2014 recruiting class, saying the Sun Devils added a lot of talent and filled a lot of needs.

In all, 14 of the team’s 26 recruits have been given a four-star rating by at least one noted recruiting news service, with 12 also being ranked in the nation’s top 30 at their respective positions.

Thursday morning, ESPN ranked ASU’s class as the 21st-best in the country, while Scout.com has them 16th.

“That’s something that’s nice whenever you hear about that or see that,” Norvell told the Doug and Wolf Show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Thursday morning. “For us, we take a great deal of pride in our evaluation. There’s times, there are some players that might not be as highly ranked that we think are the top guys in the class.

“We do a very extensive job with all our evaluation, with how a guy fits. It’s great that, nationally, people see our class as one of the best out there — and I believe it is as well — but you just try to make sure that you’re being thorough with every evaluation, and then obviously all the factors that we’re looking for for great Sun Devils.”

The reasons behind ASU’s success on the recruiting trail are obvious. The Devils are coming off a 10-win season that saw them win the Pac-12 South, which had to be attractive to players looking for a college.

“Across this country there’s a great buzz about ASU and what we’re doing here,” Norvell said. “And not just the wins that we’re having on the field, but how we’re winning.”

Norvell said the Devils play an exciting style of football that “kids want to be a part of,” and the results from the recruiting trail would seem to back up that claim.

“I think that was definitely a great help,” he said. “It’s a nice problem to have there when going into signing day and you have more people wanting to be a part of your program than spots that you have available.”